884 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



great bee's antennae, so making it more or less 

 helpless ; then it chops off the luckless creature's 

 wings and legs ; finally, with its powerful man- 

 dibles, it carves the body of its prey into two or 

 more sections, and carries them off to its nest. 

 Things do not always happen so, however, for 

 on one occasion a bee was observed to curl its 

 abdomen round and to sting its aggressor upon the 

 tongue, a proceeding which caused the wasp to 

 depart much disconcerted. 



This and the following species have been 

 noticed to swarm upon flower spikes of Tritoma 

 uvaria, with the honey of which they seem to 

 become quite intoxicated. Mr. Newstead has 

 observed the same effect to be produced upon 

 them by the honey of Fuschia. 



The Coleopterous parasite Metcecus paradoxus, 

 which is specially attached to this species and to 

 V . rufa, has been taken in its nest at Manley, 

 R.N., at Chat Moss, J.R.H., and on the southern 

 borders of Cheshire by Mr. H. Locke. 

 V. germanica, Fab. — Very abundant. This ground wasp 

 not infrequently constructs hanging embryo 

 nests in wooden beehives in our district. 



Mr. Newstead has devoted much time to 

 specially investigating the insects found in nests 

 of this and the preceding species. During one 

 season he took about a hundred wasps' nests at 

 Ince, near Chester, and in North Wales. His 

 very interesting observations are recorded in 

 detail in Ent. Mon. Mag., Vol. XXVII., pp. 

 39-41. In brief, the nests opened in Cheshire 

 produced : — Coleoptera — Quedius 'pundicoHis 

 Thorns. — numerous larva? and three imagos, Oct., 



